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News Roundup: 20 June - 26 June 2016 By: SSR Resource Centre | SSR | Jun 27, 2016

Want to keep up to date on the SSR field? Once a week, the Centre for Security Governance’s Security Sector Reform Resource Centre project posts pertinent news articles, reports, projects, and event updates on SSR over the past week. Click here to sign-up and have the SSR Weekly News Roundup delivered straight to your inbox every week!

 

SSR Resource Centre

Deportations are helping make Honduras one of the world’s most violent countries

Migrants to Canada are routinely prosecuted for relatively minor offences and circulated back into a society torn apart by organized crime. This article summarizes findings from a research project entitled “Deportation, Circular Migration and Organized Crime” with case studies in Honduras and Jamaica. The research examined the impact of criminal deportation on organized crime in Canada and the selected case study countries.

 

News

Uganda | Police most corrupt institution-UBOS

Ugandans believe the Uganda Police Force is most corrupt institution according to a survey carried out by Uganda Bureau of Statistic (UBOS), a government agency. – Joseph Kato, The Daily Monitor

U.S. begins targeted sanctions on Congo police official

The U.S. government imposed sanctions on Celestin Kanyama, a senior police official in the Democratic Republic of Congo, on Thursday for his role in what it described as the violent suppression of opposition to President Joseph Kabila’s government. - Patricia Zengerle and Aaron Ross, Reuters

South Africa: Eskom Donates Police Station to Mpumalanga Community

This article highlights a new way to promote community security and community policing in South Africa. – All Africa

Ghana: UN envoy seeks unregulated security forces ban ahead of polls

United Nations Secretary General’s special representative, Mohammed Ibn Chambas, has pressed on political parties in Ghana to ban unregulated security forces and seek dispute resolutions or dialogue through laid down structures, as polls draw closer. – Dasmani Laari, The Africa Report

U.S. Army’s success in Gabon may trigger more African partnerships

This year’s Central Accord, part of the Accord series of exercises, is the largest, most complex exercise the U.S. Army has ever conducted on the African continent and a key part of the Army’s efforts to build partnerships in the region. - Michelle Tan, Army Times

Security Officers undergo Arms Security Refresher Training in Liberia

As part of preparations for the physical collection of small arms and light weapons within selected communities in the country, the National Commission on Small Arms (LiNCSA) in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has conducted a three-day refresher training for state security forces in Liberia. – Front Page Africa

Victoria Nuland praises judicial system reform in Ukraine

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland has congratulated Ukrainian MPs on the adoption of the needed constitutional amendments on judicial system. – Ukrinform

Myanmar | ICJ pushes 14-step legal reform agenda

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), an international NGO, has recommended more than a dozen concrete steps for the government to reform its ailing courts and revamp the rule of law. - Malarvili Meganathan, Myanmar Times

Indonesia | Tito vows to reform police

The National Police chief nominee Comr. Gen. Tito Karnavian vowed on Thursday to internally reform the police institution. - Erika Anindita Dewi, The Jakarta Post

Security contractors en route to Canadian Embassy in Kabul killed in bombing

A suicide bomber killed 14 Nepalese security guards in an attack on their minibus in the Afghan capital of Kabul, the Interior Ministry and an Afghan security official said. The Nepalese were on their way to the Canadian Embassy, where they worked as guards. – CBC News

 

Analysis

Which cities are the most corrupt in the world?

This fascinating essay argues that a better understanding of urban corruption around the world is needed, and highlights a series of innovative approaches to measuring corruption at the city level. – Jack Shenker, The Guardian

To Reduce Urban Violence in Latin America, Learn From Success Stories

The authors argue that it is possible to learn from success stories from around the region to reduce urban violence in Latin America, arguing that ‘if Latin America hopes to shed its dubious title as the world’s most violent region, it will have to lower homicides in the areas where they are most concentrated: the cities’ - Robert Muggah and Ilona Szabo de Carvalho, Insight Crime

The Peace Agreement and Colombia’s Criminal Dynamics

With a final peace deal in sight in Colombia, this article aims to determine the deal’s effects on the dynamics of organized crime, particularly the billion-dollar criminal economies that reside in FARC areas of influence. - Jeremy McDermott, Insight Crime

Interventions and the (de)stabilizing of sovereignty in Africa

Centre for Security Governance Senior Fellow Nina Wilén talks about her new book, Justifying Interventions in Africa: (De) Stabilizing Sovereignty in Liberia, Burundi and the Congo, which explores the relationship between sovereignty, stability and intervention by examining justifications for interventions in three states. – Nina Wilén, Democracy in Africa

Thailand | Law needs fairer hand

This op-ed argues that there is a need for reform of not just laws in Thailand, but attitudes in order to foster respect of the rule of law and ‘to bring the country into the 21st century’. – The Bangkok Post

Myanmar | …And Justice for All

This op-ed argues that government interference and corruption have left Myanmar’s judiciary and legal profession ‘in a shambles, its lawyers poorly trained and its judges cowed by police.’ – Frontier Myanmar

 

Publications

Gender and community security

This report explores the role of gender in community security programmes and looks at what has worked and what hasn’t in a range of contexts: Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, South Sudan and Yemen. - Hannah Wright, Julie Brethfeld, Zarina Khan, Saferworld

Responsive and Responsible: Politically Smart Rule of Law Reform in Conflict and Fragile States

There is a long-standing recognition that rule of law is an essential element in achieving sustainable peace and development. In recent years it has gained even more prominence in policy discourse and as a core ingredient of broad-based international commitments, with the Sustainable Development Goals and in particular Goal 16 as a clear indicator for where we are headed. Yet, what has been lacking in rule of law reform, or at least it has been only marginally represented, is a political approach to address the underlying causes of problems and obstacles to rule of law. The report stresses the need to utilize political analysis to inform rule of law engagements in order to align political approaches with technical methodologies used by actors in the field of peacekeeping, peacebuilding and development. - Richard Sannerholm, Shane Quinn and Andrea Rabus, Folke Bernadotte Academy (FBA)

Afghanistan National Defense and Security Forces: Mission, Challenges and Sustainability

This report assesses the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces’ structure and capabilities and the conditions needed for their long-term financial and operational sustainability. – Ali A. Jalali, United States Institute of Peace (USIP)

Why Security Sector Reform has to be negotiated

The implementation of Security Sector Reform (SSR) faces many challenges, such as lack of technical capacity, limited political will, tensions within society, or donors ignoring the given context and imposing their own agendas. Dialog, negotiation and mediation provide avenues to deal with these challenges in a consensus-oriented manner, leading to more legitimate and sustainable outcomes.- Simon J.A. Mason, CSS – ETH Zurich

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